I have a suggestion for future tournament directors (and league coordinators), and maybe something our Tech team could work on for the entire KCFDC community. A very useful tool would be a text service that you signup for to receive text message updates. ....

Interesting idea. We use this technology at USM to alert students to snow days and other things. I'll look into this and see if it would be feasible to implement this and allow club members the opportunity to "opt in" to receive alerts. Thanks for the suggestion Eric.

I've always thought a way to do it would be a twitter account, as well. Publish the handle in the players' book and it could be used not only for weather issues but also for second round tee times and whatnot.

kselrod

I checked with our Athletics Dept. at PSU and they are going to add me to their system to receive severe warning and lightning updates as far distance from the campus. They use this system for all outside events that pertain to PSU. All they have to do is add my cell phone number to the system and I'll get the info sent to my phone for free too. A perk for working at the university!

coops

I remember checking both facebook and twitter during the rain delay to get updates on the round cancellation. The tech team already made this available to everyone.

I have three main points:1. I wasn't specifically talking about the WO here. I was thinking it might be a nice feature moving forward in all events, even those without poor weather. It would just be nice if you're out somewhere having turned in your card first to be able to check and see when you are supposed to start so you don't get back too early.2. If I were talking about the WO, it (the Twitter handle) could/should have been in the players' book.3. It was an awesome event and I hope it continues to get even better.

I will weigh in on the lightning and storm issue, since I am one that made the call at Rosedale and I'm also likely the only one in this conversation that has a B.S. in meteorology.

I can't speak for what went on at other courses, but I will talk about Rosedale. I had been watching the radar on my phone for about an hour prior to the storm rolling in. I knew the storm was coming, but was not sure exactly when to make the call and radar on a small phone doesn't give you a great impression of the speed of movement of individual cells. There was no lightning at Rosedale until I made the call, and torrential rain was coming down within 10 minutes of the call being made. At the time, I actually thought I was making the call 5-10 minutes early, or at least this was what I intended to do. In retrospect, I wish I had been 5-10 minutes earlier. The storm moved in THAT fast. If I had trouble making the call on time, I imagine that other experienced TDs like Kevin likely had similar issues. I imagine Kevin made the call the best he could, but like me, I'm sure he wishes he made it earlier. Still, we always try to make the call in enough time to get players to safety. Loomis, your point is well taken (although perhaps the acrimony could be turned down a notch) and safety is the primary concern, but also know that seeing a bolt of lightning is not necessarily the trigger to halt play. There are a number of factors to take into account, but the distance of the lightning from the course is also important. I normally won't call it unless lightning is within 4-5 miles, or I know there's going to be a dangerous situation soon (which was the case at Rosey this year). We do sometimes play it a little too close because we also get blasted by players for calling it too early. Still, I always wish to err on caution's side, and I know Kevin does as well.

I have previously advocated for purchasing SkyScan lightning detectors. They are the best detectors on the market, IMHO, and many schools and public agencies use these. We thought about purchasing these for Worlds in 2009, but decided not to at the time because PDGA had a set of those that they bought in 2006 (when I was Competition Director), and we had the use of those for 2009 Worlds. We didn't need those in 2009 as the torrential rain of day 1 that year didn't involve lightning, but we had them at our disposal. I'm not sure if Jason Allind had those at his disposal during the Wide Open this year, but it's something they should still be carrying with them in the PDGA travelling trailer. In any case, we run more events than just NTs and Worlds, so I think we should have at least 2 of them, and we can rely on PDGA for those times we are running more than 2 venues simultaneously.

My $.03 (adjusted for inflation)

Chap

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Missouri....our state animal is sterile, our state rock is lead, and we elected a dead guy to the U.S. Senate. Of course, he was the best candidate.

coops

Thanks for the thoughts, Chappy. I think the idea that I have is that we should use technology as much as possible to remove the decision from the TDs hands. Obviously if it is getting dangerous and there is no indication to call it off they would still have that ability but I think it is important to set a baseline so that if lightning is (insert safe number) away play is halted. That way the TD doesn't have to worry about getting lambasted for calling it too early or too late.

Thanks for the thoughts, Chappy. I think the idea that I have is that we should use technology as much as possible to remove the decision from the TDs hands. Obviously if it is getting dangerous and there is no indication to call it off they would still have that ability but I think it is important to set a baseline so that if lightning is (insert safe number) away play is halted. That way the TD doesn't have to worry about getting lambasted for calling it too early or too late.

Cooper,

Technology is a nice tool to help TDs make judgment calls, but it doesn't always work. In my case at Rosedale, having a SkyScan probably wouldn't have gotten the players off the course any faster, because of the speed of the storm. Folks have to realize that although we do the best job possible to keep players safe, nature is sometimes just unpredictable.

Logged

Missouri....our state animal is sterile, our state rock is lead, and we elected a dead guy to the U.S. Senate. Of course, he was the best candidate.

coops

Understood. That is why I think there should be a baseline with skyscan (some expert's opinion of lightning proximity) but still with the option of the TD calling it earlier. I think the current system where it is only on the TD is irresponsible and there should be a baseline but there should also be an expectation that if a cell is moving that quickly the TD can call people off earlier, like you did.

I just think it is easier to scapegoat technology in many cases and it removes that sort of pressured decision-making from the TD and does so in the name of safety. I think we mostly agree on this but just wanted to clarify the distinction that exists in my argument.